FAISAL Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is the accused in Crime No.13/2020 of Excise Enforcement and Anti Narcotic Special Squad, Thiruvananthapuram alleging commission of offences under Ss. 8 (c), 20 (b), (ii) (C) and 29 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (hereinafter referred to as 'NDPS Act' for short).

(2.) The gist of the prosecution case in brief, is that on 8/10/2020 at about 3 p.m the petitioner along with other accused were transporting 3 Kgs of Hashish Oil and 101 Kgs of Ganja in contravention of the provisions of the NDPS Act and thereby they committed the offences under the aforesaid provisions of law.

(3.) The earlier bail application of the petitioner was considered by me through order dtd. 23/5/2022 in B.A. No.3452/2022. I see no change of circumstances warranting the grant of bail to the petitioner presently. It is the case of the petitioner that even the final report which has now been filed does not suggest that the petitioner was in actual possession of the contraband in question. It is also the case of the petitioner that the petitioner had never exercised any control over the contraband and therefore the petitioner is entitled to bail. This very same argument was considered by me while considering the earlier bail application of the petitioner and relying on the judgment of the Supreme Court in Union of India through Narcotic Control Bureau, Lucknow v. Md. Nawaz Khan; (2021) 10 SCC 100 I had taken the view that the absence of allegation of possession is not by itself a consideration which would weigh with this court in deciding an application for grant of bail to an accused involved in an offence relating to a commercial quantity of a narcotic durg. Therefore this bail application is dismissed.